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CNN Live Today

New Press Secretary; Surprise Trips To Iraq; Avoid Gouging Tips; Smart Lithium Car

Aired April 26, 2006 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Daryn Kagan take over.
Hello, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll take that toss. Thank you. Thank you, Miles. You guys have a great day in New York City.

We're starting our hour with a new hire at the White House. The guy they hired has actually described President Bush as cowering under the bed, an embarrassment and impotent. Well, get this, now he is the president's mouthpiece. Just a short time ago, President Bush announced conservative pungent Tony Snow is the new White House press secretary. And after the president's flattering introduction, Snow had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for the honor of serving as press secretary. And just a couple of quick notes. I'm delighted to be here. One of the things I want to do is just make it clear that I -- one of the reason I took the job is not only because I believe in the president, because, believe it or not, I want to work with you. These are times that are going to be very challenging. We've got a lot of big issues ahead and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together and I am very excited and I can't wait. And I want to thank you, Mr. President, for the honor, and thank all you guys for your forbearance and I look forward to working with you. Thanks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Oh, it's all smiles now. But that's all he had to say. Didn't take any questions. This is a return to the White House for Snow. He was a speech writer under President Bush's father. He's 50 years old and he now replaces Scott McClellan. He is stepping down after three years. The changes are part of a West Wing makeover designed to boost President Bush's record low approval ratings.

Elaine Quijano is at the White House.

And, Elaine, explain to us how this is going to work because Tony Snow has come out before and been critical, as we were saying, of some of President Bush's policies. Now he's going to have to defend those.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn. That's exactly right. But what the White House is saying about that, is that this demonstrates President Bush and the administration are open to differing views, to different ideas, and they believe that Tony Snow is going to be a forceful advocate for President Bush.

I should tell you, Tony Snow wasting no time in making the rounds and meeting with members of the White House press corps. I met him just a short time ago as he was in the briefing room after that formal announcement by President Bush that he was his pick for the new press secretary. Tony Snow making clear that he wants to work with the media. At the same time, though, President Bush in his comments earlier today making note of the sharp opinions expressed by Snow in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For those of you who've read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometime has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments and he said, you should have heard what I said about the other guy. I like his perspective, I like the perspective he brings to this job and I think you're going to like it, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now this announcement coming at a time when President Bush has watched his approval ratings continue to fall, now in the low 30s according to the latest CNN poll. But President Bush making clear, while he makes the decisions, he believes Tony Snow is the best person to help communicate those decisions and messages.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And, Elaine, it's not just a change of personnel, but as I understand it, a change of the job as well. That Tony Snow is going to have access and power that previous press secretaries have not had.

QUIJANO: It's really interesting, Daryn. That was one of the points of negotiations according to sources familiar with these talks. Three Republican sources saying that Tony Snow actually sought from Josh Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, and other senior aides at the White House, assurances that he, in fact, would have a voice in some of these major policy debates going on. That he, in fact, would have an active role in that. Also an active role in ensuring that he has a voice in the hiring of people in the White House press and communications operations. So this is certainly a press secretary, an incoming press secretary, who wants to make his own mark.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Elaine Quijano at the White House. Elaine, thank you.

Let's get to know Tony Snow a little bit better. He comes to the White House from Fox News channel. You've heard of that place. He was a weekend anchor and political analyst. Prior to that, he worked as a columnist for "The Detroit News" and "USA Today." Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer in February of last year. He had been awaiting medical clearance before taking the White House job.

It does come way pay cut. His salary drops to about $161,000 a year. Snow is from Cincinnati, Ohio. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.

Drivers, new outrage for you. $16 billion in first quarter profits. That's what the nation's three largest oil companies are expected to announce this week. That comes as drivers are now paying an average of $2.92 a gallon for gas nationwide. That's up 42 cents from a month ago and 70 cents from a year ago. Americans are screaming for relief at the pumps. Consider this, drivers abroad are paying even more than that. Here now a CNN "Fact Check."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): What American are paying for gas is a bargain compared to prices in many other countries. Consider the Netherlands. According to the U.S. Energy Department, Dutch drivers pay the most of anywhere in the world for an equivalent of a gallon of gas, about $6.73. The main culprit, as it is in most other countries, are taxes. The Dutch pay a gas tax of just over $4.

In France, the actual cost of gas is $2.15. Add on the tax and it jumps to $5.80. In most other European countries, the total average price, tax included, is more than $6.

Japanese drivers have it a little easier. Their total per gallon price is about $4.50. Besides market fluctuations, another reason for the high taxes abroad, government efforts to get people to conserve energy. By comparison, American drivers pay the lowest tax on gas of any industrialize country, about 15 percent at current prices.

But not all drivers are in shock when they drive up to the pump. Gas prices are incredibly cheap in many oil-producing countries where government subsidize prices to keep them below what it actually costs to make gas. Chinese drivers, for example, pay less than $2 a gallon. In Iran, it's less than 35 cents a gallon. In Venezuela, a mere 12 cents.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: A critical time, a show of support. Just ahead, two of the Bush administration's key players drop in on Baghdad.

Liar, liar. You're surprised? You might be surprised at how many workers are late for work and making up reasons for why. OK, have we busted you on this one? We've got the lowdown ahead on CNN LIVE FROM. That's coming up. We want to know what your best excuse is at being late for work. Send us an e-mail at livetoday@cnn.com. Make it good. We love your e-mail.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Take a look at who turned up in Iraq today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arriving in Baghdad on a surprise visit. Hours earlier, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew into the city. Both trips were unannounced due to security concerns. Their visit, a show of support for Iraqi's new prime minister designate. Rumsfeld also is checking on Iraqi forces.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They have proceed with their training and equipping. They have gained more experience. They've provided the overwhelming portion of the security for the last two elections, and for the referendum on the constitution, and they are increasing their capabilities every day just as we predicted they would. And those naysayers and critics who constantly tried to undermine and denigrate the quality of those force were just plain, flat wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: For more on these surprise visits, we head to the Pentagon and CNN's Jamie McIntyre.

Jamie, more to Donald Rumsfeld's visit than just saying hey to the new prime minister?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of it is showing support for the new government and underscoring how important the Pentagon believes that getting this unity government in place and having it enjoy the support of the people is critical to the U.S. turning a page in Iraq. But what you won't hear from Iraq today is any announcement of significant U.S. troop reductions. That's because they don't want to talk about it.

But privately, sources tell CNN that planning is well underway for significant reductions in U.S. troops by the end of the year, assuming, again, that the government takes control and that the Iraqi security forces continue to improve. If that's the case, General George Casey, the top U.S. commander who you saw there meeting with Rumsfeld, hopes to reduce the number of troops in Iraq from 15 brigades to 10 brigades by the end of the year. That would be a reduction of about 30,000 troops and would bring the number of troops in Iraq from 130,000 or so now down to about 100,000.

There's even some optimistic planning scenarios that would bring the U.S. troop level below that, as low as 75,000. But they're based and basically everything going right. As we know, Daryn, experience has shown that in Iraq it's a fool's error in to believe that everything is going to go right.

This visit, by the way, comes during a deadly period for U.S. troops. U.S. casualties up over 60 fatalities this month after a lull last month. And that puts April on track to be one of the deadliest months in recent months in Iraq for U.S. troops.

Daryn. KAGAN: What about the recent political attacks on Donald Rumsfeld? Did they follow him to Iraq or did he get a break from those by being so far away?

MCINTYRE: Well, you know, a number of retired generals have called for Rumsfeld to step down, saying that his leadership is either incompetent or has passed its time. He was asked about that by a reporter in Iraq, whether this visit to Iraq, his 12th, might, in fact, be his last as U.S. defense secretary. And in characteristic to Rumsfeld's style, he just smiled and said, no. He didn't think it would be his last trip.

KAGAN: Very well said. Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, thank you.

There are new threats from al Qaeda's front man in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shows his face in a video posted on the Internet. On the tape he scorns the U.S. lead coalition and the Iraqi government. He urges militants to unite. In the video, Zarqawi is wearing what intelligent sources say it a suicide belt over a black shirt.

We're at 13 minutes past the hour. Let's check in on weather across the country. Chad Myers has that for us.

Chad, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Chad, let's shock America.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Uh-oh.

KAGAN: What time are you supposed to be here every morning?

MYERS: 5:00.

KAGAN: 5:00 a.m.

MYERS: Yes.

KAGAN: Oh, that's not so bad. I thought it was worse than that.

MYERS: No.

KAGAN: Usually you're on time?

MYERS: Used to be. Remember when we had "Daybreak," I was here like at 3:15.

KAGAN: Back in the day. Ah!

And usually on time?

MYERS: Yes.

KAGAN: Yes. MYERS: I can't be late. You know if I'm late.

KAGAN: It doesn't really work in this job.

MYERS: No.

KAGAN: Well, guess what, a lot of people in America are faking it. They are making up excuses for showing up late to work. Well, guess what, you're busted. There's a new survey by Careerbuilder.com finds that up to 13 percent of American workers are late at least once a week. Imagine if we started this show like at 10:15. Sorry, I was late.

MYERS: Yes, advertisers would love that.

KAGAN: Yes. About a 25 percent are late at least once a month. On top of that, 20 percent admit lying to their bosses about the reason for their lateness. Hmm. Apparently they're not very convincing because 35 percent of bosses say, well most of the time they don't believe the excuses.

MYERS: That's why they made the punchbox (ph).

KAGAN: Yes, there's that. And I guess the dog ate my homework, you need to graduate from that when you go into the workplace.

MYERS: Right.

KAGAN: Well, we're going to put it to our viewers because don't we get the best responses?

MYERS: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Good.

KAGAN: Yes. So we're asking them, what is your best excuse for being late to work? Tell us your sweet little lies.

MYERS: And we won't tell you boss.

KAGAN: No. No. Absolutely not. E-mail us at livetoday@cnn.com. We will get to that in a bit.

Also, we're going to take a little visit to my world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Sit. Stay. Let's go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Yes, that's my little girl, Darla Louise. The dog whisperer, Caesar Milan, came over to give me, more importantly me than the dog, a lesson. So we're going to visit with a dog whisperer. If your pooch doesn't know who's boss, you've got to get Fido in front of the TV for this very important lesson.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That looks very familiar. KAGAN: Yes. Gerri, does that look like your dog at home? Do you even have a dog?

WILLIS: I don't have a dog, but the dog whisperer is awesome. Did he help you out? He's wonderful.

KAGAN: He was on your show, too.

WILLIS: He was.

KAGAN: Yes.

WILLIS: And he's amazing. Really fun.

KAGAN: He said the dog was great, the owner needs a little bit of work.

WILLIS: Oh, I'm sure he was (INAUDIBLE) you.

Hey, we're going to talk about gas prices this morning. If you're still fuming over gas prices, we'll tell you how you're being gouged and how to tell on the gougers. That's up next on "Five Tips."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The markets have been open 50 minutes. Some movement there. The Dow is up 93, 94 points. The Nasdaq also in positive territory. It is up 10 points.

Stocks aren't the only thing that's going up. So are gas prices. We've all been feeling the pain at the pump. But what if you're thinking that you're getting gouged? Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis is here with today's "Top Five Tips."

Hi, Ger.

WILLIS: Hey, Daryn, good to see you.

Are you being gouged? That's a big question people are asking. They think they are. But here's some rules of thumb. If a gas station has dramatic price swings of more than 20 cents a gallon in two days, it may be a sign you're getting gouged. Or if gas stations in your community have more than a five-cent a gallon difference between them, another sign. So check AAA's fuel gauge report at fuelgaugereport.com to see what the average gas price is in your community.

KAGAN: How about location, location, location?

WILLIS: I'm telling you, it's all about that. You need to shop, I guess, with your steering wheel, you could say. Convenience has a price. You want to avoid isolated gas stations before a long stretch of road because those people can charge whatever they want. Combination between gas prices keeps gas prices in check. Gas stations in major city are more expensive because, well, they're sitting on prime real estate. Look for generic gas instead of branded name. Generic gas is more competitive, cheaper.

KAGAN: So tempting to go into the mini mart and load up on snacks.

WILLIS: Well, I've got to tell you, it's interesting because convenience stores, you would think they would be the most expensive on the block, but maybe not. Here's why. You want to look for the larger, more popular convenience stores to get cheaper fuel. Gas retailers who sell snacks make most of their money on the food. The markup on food and drinks can be as much as 50 percent while gas stations only make about 14 cents per gallon of gas. So the more profitable a gas station's convenience store, the less likely they have to charge high gas prices.

KAGAN: But what if, Ger, you suspect something really fishy is going on and you are being gouged?

WILLIS: Well, now, if you are being gouged and, believe me, I'm sure it's happening in many places, the president has ordered a federal investigation into price gouging. But you don't have to suffer in silence. Sound the alarm bells. Go to the Department of Energy's website, gaswatch.energy.gov, or call 1-800-244-3301 and report them. You can also go to your state's attorney general's office.

KAGAN: And for those of us wondering when does the madness stop, what are you hearing from the experts?

WILLIS: Well, we're hearing some positive news out there. There may be a silver lining here. We may see cheaper gas after July. As you know, gas prices have risen 32 percent since last year, but we may be nearing the end of the skyrocketing gas prices. Experts we talked to say those gas prices will remain high through July 4th. But without any major events, let's say there are no hurricanes, everything's pretty quiet, prices could drop off as much as 20 percent after that. So we'll be keeping an eye out because it's important to everybody's bottom line, everybody's budget, Daryn.

KAGAN: Gerri Willis, thank you for your tips.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Good to see you.

WILLIS: Good to see you.

KAGAN: Well, if those high gas prices are sending you into sticker shock, then check out this little sleek number. All right, so it doesn't have a lot of leg room or room for the kids, but it doesn't need one drop of gasoline. Our Miles O'Brien took a plug and he plugged in and went for a roadster spin on AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The gas-powered version of this offspring of a Yugo and roller skate gets about 60 miles to the gallon. But this one, well, it runs on a different kind of juice.

All right. Let's see the battery itself. That's the key here.

RICHARD GRIFFITHS, HYBRID TECHNOLOGIES: This is . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: You could -- first of all, could you do this vehicle with lead acid batteries? Would they be too big?

GRIFFITHS: If you did it with lead acid batteries, you would need a trailer behind following it. So, yes, no, that wouldn't be possible.

MILES O'BRIEN: It is possible with lithium batteries. The type that power cell phones and laptops.

GRIFFITHS: Lithium cells.

MILES O'BRIEN: Fill it up, just plug it in for five hours or so. Richard Griffiths is the driving force behind a company determined to make practical, lithium powered electric vehicles. The other day he let me take a spin.

And then what about this red button here? Should I push the red button?

GRIFFITHS: I know you want to, but the red button will -- the red button shuts down everything.

MILES O'BRIEN: Note to self, avoid red button.

OK, want to take it nice and slow.

GRIFFITHS: Yes, go ahead.

MILES O'BRIEN: Think golf cart. Golf cart here.

And avoid using the g-word. It makes Richard crazy. He's working on putting lithium electric motors in several vehicles that carry more weight with car buyers.

GRIFFITHS: We can basically take any vehicle and we can adapt it to fit within a -- we can take any -- basically any model, put a lithium motor in it and so it really comes down to what the market is looking for.

MILES O'BRIEN: Can you put it in my Yukon XL?

GRIFFITHS: Yes, you know, you would have one heck of a battery bag.

MILES O'BRIEN: I don't think anything's scalable to that level yet, is it?

GRIFFITHS: No, it's not.

MILES O'BRIEN: In the meantime, don't buy a car like this if you want to stay on the down low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many miles per gallon?

MILES O'BRIEN: Absolutely unlimited. Unlimited. It's just a battery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it a four cylinder?

MILES O'BRIEN: There's no engine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no engine. Oh, OK.

MILES O'BRIEN: All electric. It's a golf cart.

Oh, there I go again. The price tag is sure a long way from golf carts. This car goes for $35,000, more than double what you'd pay for a gas powered model. Even at $3 a gallon, that's a lot of gas.

This is a statement vehicle for now.

GRIFFITHS: For now it's a statement vehicle. This is an early adapter vehicle, absolutely.

MILES O'BRIEN: Now let's say you want something sportier. Check out this model.

GRIFFITHS: This is a Chrysler Crossfire. We call it the R-car (ph).

MILES O'BRIEN: The R-car, mean what?

GRIFFITHS: Everybody wants to have R-car. Meaning it's -- this is the ultimate chick mobile. It's sexy and, you know, it shows that you're environmentally conscious.

MILES O'BRIEN: Wow, check that out.

GRIFFITHS: We have here. So this is the new engine. This is what the new engine looks like on a lithium vehicle.

MILES O'BRIEN: Supposedly this one will do 160. And just as I was getting ready to test that claim on the west side highway, I was going nowhere fast.

What did I hit? Did I hit something?

GRIFFITHS: Yes, I think you hit the button there. I think this button.

MILES O'BRIEN: I -- you know what, I hit it. That may not be the best place for that.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Don't push the eject button, Miles.

Before you get in your car and head off to work, why don't you check out Miles and Soledad. They get started every morning at 6:00 a.m. They take it to 10:00 a.m. Eastern and then we show up with CNN LIVE TODAY.

Celebrity clout. A star's image can help or hurt sales. Find out which stars are hot, which ones are not. Pitch and sell on LIVE TODAY.

How about a celebrity pitches your product. OK, that's one thing. But the leader of more than a billion Catholics linked to your product? That is priceless. Marketing to the masses and product placement ahead on LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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